A 26 year old recovering addict who is fighting addiction by walking 2575 miles from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida arrived in Highlands last night and his walking from Highlands to Belmar this afternoon and then from Belmar to Brielle on Saturday.

Jessie Grieb, a native of Spring Lake who now lives in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, was welcomed home by her aunt Karen Grieb Burke last night when she arrived in Highlands from New York City via the Seastreak Ferry.

Grieb said she was inspired to walk the east coast of the United States by her friend Brett Bramble who walked from Delaware to San Francisco in 2016 and from Key West to the U.S./Canadian border at Fort Kent, Maine earlier this year. Grieb said she is following the reverse route of Bramble’s Key West to Maine walk, except for the New Jersey portion of the trip which is like a homecoming to reconnect with family and friends on the Jersey Shore.

Grieb said she has not been to New Jersey since the funeral of her brother Brian, who overdosed in 2015. Grieb’s walk is to support her own sobriety…she relapsed in July shortly before starting her Gumpian journey….to raise awareness of the overdose crisis which she said killed 72,000 people last year…more than the entire Vietnam War..and to inspire hope for other addicts and their families.

She is walking 100 miles per week and plans to arrive in Key West in February.

Grieb is walking to the Windmill in Belmar (Jct of Rt 35 and 71) this evening and will be joined by friends, family and anyone who wants to support her journey on Saturday morning at 11 AM, at Windmill in Belmar for the walk to a marina in Brielle.